June 09, 2014

Folks, Republicans can’t help it. As former Texas governor Ann Richards said about George Bush (the first), “Poor George. He can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”

In its latest iteration of African American “outreach,” the GOP is celebrating Black Music Month.

What Republicans don’t get is that the policies that opened the door to opportunities are the same policies that they now oppose. The policies include affirmative action, minority business set-asides (and here) and equitable funding of traditional public schools.

James Brown recorded “I Don’t Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing” in 1969. Forty-five years later, the GOP has closed the door to opportunity.

January 18, 2012

Ward Connerly, the race hustler who is paid to oppose affirmative action, is under investigation for allegedly using his nonprofit to line his own pockets to the tune of between $1.2 million and $1.5 million each year.

Ward Connerly, the black businessman who has been the face of the movement to end affirmative action for nearly two decades, is facing accusations from a prominent former ally that he has mismanaged — and exploited for his own benefit — donations to that cause made by fellow conservatives.

Moreover, a group Mr. Connerly founded to advance government policies that are race and gender neutral, the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute, is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and by the attorney general of California, according to documents and interviews.

Mr. Connerly has faced accusations of profiteering before, as supporters of affirmative action highlighted his salary in an effort to discredit his cause. But this time, the allegations are more detailed and come from another significant movement figure: Jennifer Gratz, the named plaintiff in a landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that struck down a race-based admissions policy at the University of Michigan.

After she won that case, Mr. Connerly hired Ms. Gratz to conduct research and run campaigns supporting anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives. She resigned last September and, through her lawyer, sent the group’s board a five-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Time.

Gratz probably knows nothing about “race music,” but she is affirming a truism: Don't start me to talking.

Kagan’s black male supporters, including Harvard Law Prof. Charles Ogletree Jr., point to the faculty chair she assumed during her tenure as dean of Harvard Law School as evidence of her commitment to racial equality.

For many African Americans, that’s pretty thin gruel on which to endorse a lifetime appointment to one of these chairs.

In a 1997 memorandum to President Clinton, you supported reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine to 10:1. Do you support eliminating the sentencing disparity?

In a case pending before the Supreme Court in 1997, Piscataway Bd. Of Education v. Taxman, in which a school district used its affirmative action policy to lay off a white teacher instead of a black teacher with the same seniority, the then Solicitor General wrote a memo that suggested filing a brief arguing that the teacher should not have been laid off in this particular case, and that if the court adopted this position, it would not have to address whether Title VII “always precludes non-remedial affirmative action.” You wrote on that memo, “I think this is exactly the right position – as a legal matter, as a policy matter, and as a political matter.” Are race-based remedies ever permissible? If left to you alone, would you have applied the “mend it, don’t end it” affirmative action policy to race-neutral remedies only?

Please explain why you apparently opposed the formation of a commission on race by President Clinton during his second term.

During your tenure as Dean of Harvard Law School, the law school faculty grew by almost 50%, with the hiring of 43 full-time faculty, including 32 tenured or tenure track. Of those 32, please explain why only one minority, an Asian American, and only seven women were hired, and, of the 11 non-tenure track faculty, why only three minorities – two black and one Indian – and only two women were hired.

While Dean, you apparently offered faculty positions to several minority candidates who turned down the offers. How many were African American?

Connerly is gearing up to place an anti-affirmative action initiative on the November ballot in battleground states, including Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and Nevada. Though white women have been its primary beneficiaries, affirmative action is seen as a “test” for Obama.

Basically, on every racial issue Barack Obama is walking the tightrope. The more he supports traditional black issues like affirmative action, the more that will eat into his white base of support.

If history is any guide, the ballot measure will boost turnout among voters who are not likely to vote for the Democratic nominee, whether it’s Obama or Clinton. In 2004, an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative helped George Bush narrowly defeat John Kerry in Michigan.

Connerly, an old-school “post-racial” political hack, is setting traps for Democrats on their hoped-for road to victory in the general election.